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Rating: I don't know, and honestly, I don't care much, what drives hundreds of millions of butts daily to move in a gesture more or less athletic and fluid like the natural act of running. Diet and the race for the summer body? Not for me; gyms disgust me, the chase for Brad Pitt's abs and the treadmills that keep us still in a room full of mutual envious glances are an embodiment of sadness. I'm afraid of the couch, the box that gave the name to the room next to the kitchen and the living room. I need daily sensations that make me say: I am living. What drives me from April to October, once the workday is over, to untie the knot of the tie and slip on my mountain running shoes, is the desire to exert effort, but not in the masochistic sense of the word. It's technically called "catching your breath." When after a good handful of minutes, it seems like you have no more, when your heart is pounding, when drops of sweat cover your eyes, when you taste of salt: that's when it's time to accelerate. Suddenly, if you're well-trained, the body gets used to the effort, and you find an oasis of air, a pouch of energy, and you feel free and light. A pure form of freedom which I enjoy almost daily among rocks, roots, trees, and dozens of km of space from a cross placed at 1700 meters overlooking the valley. I am drenched in sweat, in ecstasy, excited and relaxed: I am fucking alive!!! I watch the sunset and take out a beer from my backpack, sipping it slowly, while my heart returns to normal.
But you can't always run outdoors, and hence the books that pepper my shelves. When a person isn't used to reading, they keep looking at the pages. "Today I read 50 pages." "How far have you gotten? Well, I'm on page 120." "Holy shit do you think I asked how many lousy grams of pasta you ate or what the heck sauce you used?" It's nice to read when you get into the story, ignoring the pages, and you manage to empathize with the characters and situations. You read when you kick the book that disappointed you and transmitted nothing, and you're not afraid to leave it justifiably incomplete at the mercy of perpetual dust. Sometimes it's nice to root for the villain, maybe described in a more captivating way than the protagonist, and then the feeling of feeling your body slowly fall asleep with a good book is truly sublime. The brain shuts down with a smile...
Music has been there for me in a particularly dark time in my life. What was simmering inside me I wanted to let out in the form of music. Hours spent listening, trying to find something that could resonate with my mood. Albums are divided into two categories: immediate and enigmatic ones. Between these two extremes, there are a damn near-infinite number of in-betweens. Enigmatic ones shouldn't be confused with the bricks: granite pieces that, despite being streamlined by hundreds of listens, will always remain deep. The first sensation, like when you've almost blackened all the squares on a crossword you thought you could solve, is to give up. It doesn't convince you, the grape is sour, and the blank puzzle on the next page is muuuch riper. But over time you grasp something you didn't initially catch, and with each listen, the album rises like homemade bread. An album as stimulating and fascinating, as an attractive and mysterious woman, I haven't found yet (is it why I read, run, and listen???) and perhaps that's what drives me to regularly enrich my collection.
Nonetheless, "Holy Land" by Angra is one of those albums capable of giving me strong and full sensations even after 15 years. It's an immense work that manages to intertwine melodies never banal, but elegant, with ethnic inserts, tight riffs, and reflective and melancholic pauses. The guitars chase each other in fast solos, then stop in sophisticated arpeggios, and the orchestrations, the backing vocals are in perpetual ambush. They break in when you least expect it. Every track has memorable passages: the hypnotic rhythm section of "Nothing To Say", the desperate and light lament of Matos in "Silence And Distance" and "Holy Land". The pinnacle of a record I am not afraid to define as Everest-like unfolds in "Carolina IV", combining theatricality with anticipation, power with restarts, and sudden ethnic stops. And that damn piano gets inside me and never leaves. And if that violin underscores its beauty, if all this happens, even if it's the hundredth time I listen to it, the hairs on my arm stand up: I feel capable of anything, running breathlessly, and ten seconds ago, I was still. This is music!!! Growing hope in Matos's vocal plucking in "Make Believe"; the bass steps in with ever-greater resolve alongside the orchestrations and gives rise to a burst of positive energy. Classical tragedy in "Z.I.T.O.": seemingly a power ride much more complex and rich in nuances as the minutes progress with monstrous guitar and symphonic work. Brazil and the ocean in the sweet and melodic "Deep Blue" with a chorus that frames Matos up there among my all-time favorite singers.
ilfreddo
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Crossing (01:55)
[Instrumental]
[Originally written by G.P. da Palestrina (1525-1594)]
02 Nothing to Say (06:21)
Long ago, the same sky above;
"It's lonesome when the sun goes down"
A day had come when we were like one:
- Weapons up, never surrender!
Oh, I saw the gleams of gold
We'd kill and die conquering a virgin world
The hold corrupted by the honour
Living forevermore, leaving today
Back to my place, I've got
Nothing to say!
Guilt and shame, it's all so insane
Pagan gods die with no defence
And we could go no further at all
Digging the graves of our conscience
Oh, the sounds, they still echoe
All of us drifting on seas of blood
The hope hidden behind the horror
Living forevermore, leaving today
Back from this land, I've got
Nothing to say!
Living forevermore, leaving today;
For all what remains I've got
Nothing to say!
Oh, how many years have gone
Every morning I bare myself from love
The love rising up from the sorrow
Living forevermore, leaving today
For all what remains I've got
Nothing to say!
Living forevermore - Nothing to say!
Back to my place, I've got...
Living forevermore - Nothing to say!
For all what remains, I've got
Nothing to say!
04 Carolina IV (10:36)
(Salve salve Iemanjá)
(Salve Janaína)
(E tudo o que se fez n'água)
(Jogam flores para o mar)
(Deus salve a Rainha)
(E o meu passo nessa esfera...)
All I see floats with the wind
(Salve salve Iemanjá, salve Janaína)
- All the miracles of the water
(E tudo o que se fez)
- Are the miracles never seen
(N'água)
Somehow my life now begins
(Jogam flores para o mar, Deus salve a Rainha)
- This music that's been played through time
(E o meu passo nessa)
- Now starts to reach my feet
(Esfera)
Feels like the flood of my needs
(Um caboclo de orixás, logo deixa a Terra)
- From the harmony of forever
(Vai de encontro à sua)
- Sound the melodies of the sea
(Sina)
And you will know on the way
(Onde o céu encontra o mar, achará seu porto)
- I'm coming back to my enemies
(E é assim que isso)
- I'm turning around
(Termina...)
- I'll be just coming back to my last days
(Que isso)
- I'm coming back to the sea!
(Termina...)
So... why won't you come with me, my friend?
Thrills... like we had before
Hope... never showing up the same
For a lonely man
Since the day we left the land
We've been anxious on aproach
Captain kept showing his plans:
"Under sail we go!"
Deep the ocean's blue I stare
The reflections of my soul
We have with us a special guest
And for him we made a toast
Carolina IV took a river to the sky
Seven men on board taking part
To take their hearts around
All around, around the world!
All I can recall that day
On that very day for sure
All hands up against the haze
As we attempted the return
Carolina IV took the river to the sky
One man less on board - human dreams
Have sometimes cost their lives,
All their lives dreaming
I've been such a fool
I've been so afraid
From my heart to you I say:
- I'll be here to stay!
Nothing much left from the boat
Many years have been and gone
Still I can't forget the past
And the ones I left at home
Carolina IV took the river to the sky
Windy whistling nights
Made me sail right into the wind's eye
Now I'll die singing:
I've been such a fool
I've been so afraid
From my heart to you I say:
- I'll be here to stay!
(Salve salve Iemanjá)
(Salve Janaína)
(E tudo o que se fez n'água)
All I see floats with the wind
(Jogam flores para o mar, Deus salve a Rainha)
(E o meu passo nessa esfera...)
Somehow my life now begins
(Um caboclo de orixás, logo deixa a Terra)
(Vai de encontro à sua sina)
Feels like the flood of my needs
(Onde o céu encontra o mar, achará seu porto)
(E é assim que isso termina...)
All I see floats windy
(Salve salve Iemanjá, salve Janaína)
Floats with the wind
(E tudo o que se fez n'água)
(Jogam flores para o mar)
(Deus salve a Rainha)
(E o meu passo nessa esfera...)
(Um caboclo de orixás)
(Logo deixa a Terra)
(Vai de encontro à sua sina)
(Onde o céu encontra o mar)
(Achará seu porto)
(E é assim que isso termina...)
(Salve salve Iemanjá)
(Salve Janaína)
(E tudo o que se fez n'água)
(Jogam flores para o mar)
(Deus salve a Rainha)
(E o meu passo nessa esfera...)
(Um caboclo de orixás)
(Logo deixa a Terra)
(Vai de encontro à sua sina)
(Onde o céu encontra o mar)
05 Holy Land (06:26)
We were born in a Golden Age
Beyond the creed
Blown with the winds to meet
The ones who creep
And pray
Unshold feet traces on fresh sand
A map unfold
Spreading out knowledge,
Magic and love
And then
... ooh, and then,
Carried by wooden gods
We leave toward the sky
Gushed out the holy blood
From those who die
To bless
Ooh, and dance...
Ooh, still dance...
Someone has sent
Somebody here
To bring an age
Long disappeared
Holy Land - Throw your scars on me!
My soul just tends to be
Your friend
Holy Land - Holy Land around
Holy Land - Holy Land is all...
Someone has sent
Somebody here
To bring an age
Long disappeared
Holy Land - Show your signs to me!
'cause I'm still here to see
Your face
Holy Land - Holy Land around
Holy Land - Holy Land is all...
Holy Land, Holy Land...
07 Make Believe (05:53)
Sat beside the meadow
Watching weeds grow
Cleaned up all the ashes
Of my soul
Wrote down my own sentence
Now you take your way
Fades the last remembrance
Of your lovely pretty face
I, after all,
Just a lonely man - a lonely heart!
Working on the future
Floating on fate
Faced the circunstances
Cleared up the shades, so
Make believe
There's no sorrow in your eyes
Can't you see
We could never get back from the start
Minutes waiting, life's been wasted
... maybe I wanna die some other day
Hear the whispers of your hope
The answer wasn't told
No, don't laugh seeing me cry
The end I've left behind
(... the whispers of your hope are left behind!)
Make believe
There's no sorrow in your eyes
Can't you see
We could never get back from the start
Minutes waiting, life's been wasted
And I've tried,
Maybe you deny
Words of peace
For the future of our lives
Bring to me
Something else than a broken heart
I won't wait 'till my life is wasted
... maybe I wanna die some other day
08 Z.I.T.O. (06:04)
Somehow I turn around and see
My nerves break down inside
Maybe you might know much more than me
So tell me what is right to say
Down the weakness of my soul
Lie the secrets, and I know
There's something pushing back
Wish my hands could turn to gold
And my heart would break the cold
To give my thoughts some sense
The turn is close, new century
Still people think they're kings
Now you've got your voice,
Your own speech
Don't wait 'till someone else agress
Swimming naked of beliefs
And responsabilities
Just feel the sea of bliss
Mother nature brings to me
In fantastic purity
Everything I need
Like a teenager discovery
What's more delightful than this?
Try to remember how good it was
Feeling the life as it is
To believe!
New world was born out of man's dreams
Now we walk on our own
The angels cried, you've heard them weep
But now it's time to make them sing!
Swimming naked of beliefs
And responsabilities
Just feel the sea of bliss
Mother nature brings to me
In fantastic purity
Everything I need
Like a teenager discovery
What's more delightful than this?
Try to remember how good it was
Feeling the life as it is
To believe!
09 Deep Blue (05:47)
Deep Blue
Three cliffs there stand
High above where high winds howl
Surrounding silence
Three birds climb, then turn to fall
Waiting for someday when the ocean and sky
Will cover up the land in deep blue
Renaissance is over and I wonder:
- Should I always be the same once again?
Take my hand and follow
Sweeping trees, the coats of green
Time has no place tomorrow
Feel the good in endless dreams
Waiting for someday when the ocean and sky
Will cover up the land in deep blue
Renaissance is over and I wonder:
- Should I close my eyes and pray?
- Feel like I've betrayed?
- Always be the same?
... always be the same once again?
10 Lullaby for Lucifer (02:43)
Lullaby for Lucifer
On the sand, by the sea
I left my heart to shed my grief
A vulture came begging me:
- Feed me with this piece of meat!
I won't give away
Something I need
On a garden nursery
I let my fancy wander free
Children playing around a tree
Sharing apples happily
Come and rest with me
Lay your hands on dreams
I'll wait here by your side
'till you fall asleep
I'll wait until you cry
All over me the tears you hide inside...
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Other reviews
By metaldiablo
"Carolina IV encapsulates the true nature of the band: Brazilian folk first and foremost, with numerous tempo changes and a convincing chorus."
"This album can absolutely be considered among the best works of Progressive Metal, thanks to the remarkable performance of the five Brazilians and Matos above all."
